Electronic Means of Marketing

The world that we live in today is very different from what it was ten years ago. Everything is going electronic and a lot of companies are starting to look for ways to cut costs, which results in taking away their paper mail. A few companies noticed that when they took away their quirky postcards or letters with reduced fees they were starting to lose clients. A few clients even called the company that took away their humorous postcards to ask where they were. After thinking about how many clients they were disappointing with their lack of postcards and not sending letters offering reduced fees, these companies decided to bring back their direct mail. I think direct mail is good to a point. It goes a little too far when the stuff you're getting in the mail comes more than once, and you always end up throwing it away. Credit card offers would be a good example of this. I think most college students can relate to this because credit card offers are constantly coming in the mail, but the annoying part is if you fill out a form for them more often than not you're rejected because you don't have enough credit to actually get your own card.

Some companies are including bar codes in their advertisements which are found on magazines or letters you can get in the mail. The article said that some cellular phones are capable of scanning the bar codes, which takes you to the website that they're advertising. I think this way of marketing is pointless. I say this because not every cellular phone user has a blackberry or iPhone that is capable of scanning these bar codes to visit the website. It would make sense if they just said what they wanted to say on the advertisement page they are paying for rather than sending you to a website, most people aren't going to take the time to visit the website or they will forget about it.

I think right now companies are really trying to push electronic marketing and messages because they want to save money, but I also think they're struggling with giving up direct mail and phone calls altogether. People are so used to getting things in the mail and letting them sit around without "erasing" them, which is something you can usually do with an e-mail message. I think in five or ten years everything will be completely electronic when it comes to contacting people, but for now I think the companies will be split in half when it comes to sending electronic messages and direct mail or phone messages.

Do you think that in five or ten years everything will be done electronically?